


Dominaria U (Working title)

by OliviaConnolly



Series: Dominaria University [1]
Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, Queer Character, Queer Themes, Queerplatonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-18 04:14:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5897824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OliviaConnolly/pseuds/OliviaConnolly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life as usual Dominaria University includes flaming zombies, bondage, student senate, The entirety of the A-Team, a box of possessed Raisin Bran (belonging to Jace, obviously) and no one knowing how to properly use a door, will romance (or lack thereof in Chandra's case) prevail? Or will the strains of extraordinary life sever the bonds the Planeswalkers work even now to bolster?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 3.99999 Zombies

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thanks for reading, some continuity is off like nonplaneswalker characters being at the University, but I want to think of this as a necessary evil of compiling the greatest characters the multiverse has to offer: some story lines like those of chapter 2 will be awkward because of this but I promise I'll attempt to keep a strict sense of internal continuity.

"So, how many times have you promised not to raise the dead in my kitchen?" Jace asked Lilliana calmly and she looked away, abashed.

"Six."

"And how many times have you done it?" He asked, firmly.

"Six..." She said and Jace waved his hand, a slight blue glow in his eyes and he peered into her mind to discern the truth.

"Oh my god, seriously, eight?!?" He shrieked, "How didn't I find out about the two other times? There are zombies in my refrigerator and there is a phylactery in my Raisin Bran!"

"Technically your Raisin Bran -IS- a phylactery, I tethered the soul of the groundskeeper to it." She paused, "Besides, Raisin Bran is such a boring cereal. Can you at least try to have some depth of character?"

A hollow moan filled their ears at the mention of Raisin Bran "Impudent mortals, the time of the living has long passed, now is the hour of the Returned, our vengeance will be terrible, our power absolute, our victory final! We shall scour your wretched..." but he was cut off as Jace closed the box and threw the cereal into the cabinet and shrugged his shoulders, slamming the door and turning to face Lilliana.

"Should I take care of it?" Lilliana asked and Jace dismissed her request out of hand, "Well how do you plan to deal with it, Mr. 4.0?" Jace scowled. "Oh sorry, sore subject?"

Jace shrugged his shoulders "Chandra can burn it, just like she burned my term paper... and wait, you killed the grounds keeper? What the fuck is wrong with you, well I mean I shouldn't be surprised, you've killed a lot of people, hmm my BOYFRIEND INCLUDED. Why are we even still friends?"

Lilliana gave a confused shrug "Ral's still alive and actually the groundskeeper died of a heart attack, besides that was when we were dating, I thought we were over that?" Jace thought to himself, over that? Over that? She had the audacity to ask if he was over the death of his best friend, his confidant, the only person he could trust in all of the infinite consortium and that whole ordeal with the Elder Dragon Nicol Bolas? She had the audacity to think he was, or ever could be, over it? It was too much, even for her.

He started to shout then regained his composure, "God, I took out a vendetta against Tezzeret, they still hate me! Do you have any idea what it's like to be hated by them? Look, he blew up my pet ferret"

"Well I wish we could just put it in the past, Jace, we're both different people now."

"Get out." Jace said pointing to the door, Lilliana shook her head and attempted to hold her ground, "This is my dorm, get the hell out. Now." Jace said as a slight wind picked up and his eyes glowed a dark shade of sapphire. Still she refused and he let out a burst of powerful energy and all the zombies in the room dropped as the force collided with their brains. As if on cue Chandra burst into the room with Ral Zarek in tow: literally. "Another hole...? Are you joking... In Urza's name... Ral, seriously, you let her blow a hole in our kitchen?"

"Yeah, Face, don't worry about it. I've got a new project that should fix it right up, if not I'll get my hands dirty with the plaster, and the wall, and the blowtorch and we can get clean together afterwards, eh?" Jace's face turned a shade of red similar to Chandra's hair and he turned before Lilliana saw him, "Hey, Face, are we still doing dinner tonight with Gideon and Chandra?" He had started calling Jace "Face" after watching all of the A-team in one day. All of it. All 98 hour long episodes and the 2 hour movie. It's a feat he's quite proud of really, invented a device to receive multiple inputs simultaneously and decipher them instantly. He got the idea after Jace sent him that video: 'Watch Every Episode of Friends Simultaneously'. Jace had no idea why, neither really did Ral aside from the fact they sounded similar. 

"Yeah, Gideon's been trying to ask me, platonically, to dinner for months. Good on ya to help the poor guy out. He's still apologizing you know. I don't even know what for at this point, I just accept it and we move along." Chandra said then noticed the zombies, seemingly for the first time, "Oh, Lilliana was here, how unfortunate." As she lit one of the nearby zombies on fire, which Ral promptly extinguished, the box of Raisin Bran emerged from hiding in the cabinet along with a very impressive display of magical prowess for a box of whole grain wheat infused with eldritch magics.

"Cry havoc and release the dogs of... Wait, Chandra, sweetie is that you?" Chandra looked confused and the box, somehow despite lacking perceptive capacities in the traditional sense noticed her confusion, "It's me, Smithers." Chandra jumped at the mention of the much beloved groundskeeper, then looked at Jace, then to Ral, then to the box of Raisin Bran, then to Lilliana, then back to the Raisin Bran, and finally settling onto staring at Jace, who after approximately three seconds broke down and admitted it was Lilliana's doing, and reluctantly clarified that apparently she didn't kill him. "It's true, my old heart gave out from loving you too much my dear!" he laughed. It was disturbing. The group looked at each other and nodded silently in agreement. Chandra closed the cupboard on the box of cereal, Ral producing a chain from his messenger bag much to everyone's surprise, except Jace's, and closed the cabinet, tying an excellent and much practiced knot. 

Lilliana chimed in after the raisin bran incident, "So apparently the torture wasn't too unbearable, eh Face?" At that everyone else in the room, which included Gideon at this point as he had walked in through the hole in the wall Chandra made a moment before looked at her with their classic "not cool, dude" face typically reserved for when Nissa was being racist. Which was almost always. But she had the biggest lounge on campus and she wasn't actually all that terrible, just thought elves were better. I mean she's not like proactive about it, just when it comes up. Yes, Sarkhan is pretty bad when he doesn't shave for a month, but that's no reason to call him an eyeblight, besides "He's like half dragon, isn't he?" Gideon always says in his defense and she just sighs in that way she does.

"Alright, fine, I'll be leaving." Lilliana said as she grabbed one of her half incinerated zombie and left through the gaping hole in the wall.

"Oh thank Avacyn she left." Jace said and drew a confused look from Chandra, "Innistrad, weird plane, cool moon, zombies, vampires, Lilliana, and almost no redeeming qualities." he continued and the four of them chuckled. "You remember that Sorin guy that Ugin had me looking for? Yeah, turns out he made an angel, he was a vampire, the... uhh the Eldrazi happened... the... mending... and look, just don't go to Innistrad. Werewolves." 

"No way." Gideon said, and looked very excited.

"Yes way," said Jace, remembering a detail he'd rather forget about Gideon. 

Chandra chimed in, "Hey, Gideon, it's six, don't you have to Gid-e-on up to your Senate meeting, law man?" and the entire room groaned audibly but Gideon nodded sheepishly and left through the gaping hole. 

Jace was flustered but Ral Zarek burst into tears laughing as Jace shouted "I have a door!" 

MEANWHILE, AT THE STUDENT SENATE MEETING!

The rows of chairs were all arranged so that they faced the front of the classroom, the economics room from the scribbles on the board, and the esteemed student council president, Tezzeret, sat twiddling at a tablet in the front of the room, they looked at their wristwatch and then cleared their throat. "The senate meeting will now come to order. The first item on the docket is the passing of last week's minutes. Any discussion? If not, I'm looking for a motion." The room was largely silent except for some clattering coming from section W. 

"That's not important!" Gideon stammered to the other senator from his housing complex.

Elspeth sighed, "It's a zombie infestation from D-3, two students are in intensive care, do you know how much of a pain that is? No, you don't, your work study is with the damned fencing coach, what do you even do? I have to deal with the mess that villainess makes, hey, coincidentally her name is an anagram of "A villainess" what a fricking coincidence eh?"

"I've got a signed document from her stating it won't happen again, she even signed it in blood, opened a vein in front of me..."

"It wasn't hers, was it."

Gideon looked abashed, then sighed, "No, no it wasn't."

There was a loud crash of a gavel as it hit the table, "Section W, is there anything you'd like to bring before the senate or can we get passed the forsaken minutes for once?" Tezzeret said from the front and Elspeth rocketed to a standing position.

"Yes, esteemed president, there is a problem student in our block and we were discussing how to approach the topic." Elspeth said and Tezzeret sighed.

"That's wonderful, Elspeth, it really is, and I'm sure you're duty bound to report it, I do however wish your rigid adherence to structure corresponded to rigid adherence to the rules: we're discussing the minutes, have you read them?" She nodded and then in a rehearsed but never employed in her two long years on the senate manner said the magic words Tezzeret wanted to hear. "Any objections? No? The minutes pass. Literally and figuratively, I get a little closer to death when I'm around you people. Moving on." He tapped the desk and the slideshow being projected on the screen advanced. "It's that time of year, as we discussed last meeting, we need to approve block budgets again..." Tezzeret began and Gideon and Elspeth returned to their discussion as to what to do about Lilliana Vess

Gideon began, "Elspeth, I understand your frustration but please consider this: Lilliana is Jace's ex-girlfriend, and Jace is my best friend, he would never forgive me if I got her expelled!" Elspeth glared at him angrily.

"One of these days someone will die, Gideon, and I won't be there to help them and it will be permanent. As most deaths are. This is a school. People aren't supposed to die at school. Lilliana Vess has one more chance before I bring her before the Conduct Board." 

"Agreed." Gideon said, he couldn't protect her much longer and he knew it.

"Now, since Elspeth and Gideon have finished their senate meeting, maybe we can get back to mine?" Tezzeret said, the scorn clearly evident in their tone, Gideon knew why they hated him, but why did they hate Elspeth? A story for another time, apparently.

MEANWHILE, BACK IN DORM C-4!

Ral Zarek had just finished applying the putty to the hole Chandra had made earlier, and ignited it. The putty reacted quickly with the flame and burned a much more door like hole in the wall. Ral looked at it, evidently surprised, then scribbled something into his notebook and put an apparatus in place slightly to the left of the now much more door shaped hole. "How's the door going?" Jace asked from the living room. Ral grunted in response and nodded approvingly at the door, Jace entered from the living room and sighed. "Ral, your toy is blocking the door."

"No it's not?" 

"Yes it is, no one can open the door." Jace said 

"I disagree, Beleren" Ral shot back as he opened "the door".

"Are you kidding me." Jace said as he put two and two together. "Instead of fix the wall like you promised you exploded a more door-like hole then put up a projection?"

Ral looked offended "This is not a projection any more than your illusions are a parlor trick! This is hard light, it functions just like that shoddy piece of wood over there would and better! Besides, look at this," he said gesturing Jace over to look at the plaque on the door that now instead of reading "C-4" read "Izzet Nap Time Yet?" Jace put his face into his palm then looked across the hall and broke out laughing at what Ral had changed Gideon's and Chandra's door sign to: "Broros." 

"You just know Elspeth is going to cite you for a violation of dorm policy right?" Jace teased, and embraced Ral, gently closing the hard light door which was actually very light and easy to glide shut. "You know I do adore a man with brains."

"That explains why you dated Lilliana, she's got six of them on her desk but none in her head sadly" Ral joked. 

“Can we not bring that up? I mean you just killed the mood entirely, nerd.” Jace said then thought to himself, “Heh, maybe we can call her up and ask her to bring it back to life.” Ral burst out laughing and Jace dragged him over to the couch and they plopped down together and kissed passionately while Ral stripped off his jacket-vest-lab-coat and tossed it onto the end table and removed his shirt, doing much the same, then he raised a finger to Jace’s mouth, shushing him. 

“Close your eyes, Beleren,” he purred and Jace obliged eagerly and Ral withdrew himself, Jace reached out but Ral eluded his grasp, Jace opened his eyes but Zarek teased, “Uh uh, no peeking,” and let out sly wink. Jace resigned himself, rather eagerly, to whatever fate Ral had in mind for him. A moment later Jace heard a slight rummaging in the kitchen and the clanking of chains and then he heard the door projector let out a hum, assuming Ral had just set the machine to “locked”, and he reappeared. “Put out your hands, sweetie,” he said in an uncharacteristically saccharin tone and Jace purred audibly.

“What have you got in mind, Lightning Bug?” he asked as he obeyed Ral’s commands. Ral just laughed and produced the chains and clamped the bracers around Jace’s wrist and a pair around his ankles then wrapped the stray chains around the metal bars of the sofa. 

“Comfortable?” Ral asked nonchalantly and Jace cooed in compliance. “Good, now you may have noticed something about these chains, they’re mana dampening. While you wear them you can’t cast any spells, guildpact.” Jace grunted as if he had attempted and independently confirmed Ral’s statement. 

“Oh come on, how am I going to make it fun without magic?” Jace asked, but quickly added “Not that there isn’t magic when we’re together,” Jace let out a chuckle and Ral responded with a hearty laugh. “I didn’t know I was that funny, lightning bug.” Jace said. 

“Now!” Ral commanded he open his eyes and he did, what he saw horrified him beyond words. The cabinets in the kitchen burst open, revealing the magically imbued box of bran cereal and infernal grapes flash dried by the sudden call of the grave. As suddenly as the box had appeared the television in the corner flickered to life.

The television flickered the following monologue came out in full force: “Sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit, these men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground.

Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune.

If you have a problem - If no one else can help - and if you can find them - maybe you can hire the A-Team.”

“Oh, I love this one,” Smithers said from the armchair directly to Jace’s left, radiating malevolent energy.

“Me too,” Ral replied and Jace shouted in agony. “Hey, guildpact, did you know that the machine over there also soundproofs the room?” Ral winked slyly at Smithers and then went to make some popcorn for the marathon.

“I have class in the morning, you dick!” Ral laughed. “Gideon’s coming over after senate!” Ral replied with something about texting to cancel. “How long will this be?” Ral produced a calculator and threw it onto Jace’s lap. “I’m serious! You won’t keep that 4.0 for long if we spend all day in here!” 

“It’s 4 days total with no sleep, and my grades can handle it Beleren, so can yours: I did the math, so don’t go anywhere alright?”


	2. Angst Is An Apt Word, I Suppose.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The planeswalkers problems (perceived or otherwise) begin to bubble to the surface: Chandra's inability to feel romantic love drives a wedge between her and Gideon. Meanwhile Jace's tendency to feel all his emotions far too sharply separates him from his fellows and drives him further into isolation, the root of his problems. Elspeth Tirel and Gideon Jura manage to approach the same problem in a different style: both distract themselves from their own problems by attempting to aid others, Elspeth wishes to aid as many people as possible whereas Gideon wants to aid his friends as much as humanly possible.
> 
> Warning: a fair bit of bad existential rambling to be had in this chapter as the characters attempt, and fail, to contemplate their place in the multiverse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's no Lilliana this chapter, she's not yet cognizant of her problem, or else she would stop making zombies. You know, please enjoy all the possible angst from mentally ill queer super heroes.

“You are the literal scum of this Plane, Ral Zarek.” Jace said in a joking tone.

Ral smirked and replied “Look, you actually liked it, hell you even skipped the last say of you own volition. No one forced you.” Jace looked flabbergasted and got instantly defensive. “Don’t say it, the chains enchantment only lasted for 72 hours. We watched 100 hours of the A-team, you had 28 hours to undo a simple set of chains.” 

Jace scowled, he hated being outsmarted. “Fair enough, I hate losing, but you know what, if I had to lose I’m glad it’s to you, lightning bug.” 

The nickname came from a class project Professor Niv-Mizzet had given them, he’s the chair of the physics department and was interested in proving the parallel world theory. Needless to say having at least ten beings from another world, a myriad of worlds at that, attending his school, one of them working directly under his tutelage almost daily should have clued him in slightly that there were indeed other worlds, but none the less project lightning bug was a success and they were able to pull the wool over his eyes, literally and figuratively. In order to cover up Gideon’s planeswalk Jace hurled a sheep at him, which was convenient for the metaphor because at the time they were testing the temporal properties of wool. When asked why Jace boldly shouted “For Science!” which apparently was a satisfactory answer for the ancient dragon.

Guildpact on the other hand came from the time before he and Ral were together, they both lived on the plane of Ravnica, a metropolitan plane with sprawling cityscapes and vistas that overlooked not a single uncultivated stretch of land. Jace Beleren had solved the Implicit Maze and by doing so became the living embodiment of law on Ravnica. It was a thankless job and everyone hated him for it. Ravnica was also where he first met Tezzeret. And Lilliana. And it had a whole slew of bad memories for Jace, but he also had many great friends there: namely Emarra Tandris, the elf who found him after his first planeswalk.

“Hey, Jace, what are you thinking about? You look pretty deep in thought.” Ral said a hint of concern in his voice. “Are you thinking back to the… good… old days?” The emphasis Ral put on good made it seem like they were less than perfect, even from his perspective. It didn’t make much sense, Ral loved Ravnica and had nothing but good memories there. Maybe it was empathy, but Jace wasn’t sure.

Jace composed himself a bit, “Hey, Ral, what is Ravnica to you?” Ral was a bit taken aback by this question as he hadn’t expected it. “I mean, I know you love Ravnica, but you weren’t born there. Was it the first world you planeswalked to?” Jace pressed the issue, “Why is it so important to you?” His voice began to quiver, “I want to love it as much as you do, but I just can’t, is there something wrong with me?” 

Ral put out his hand and grabbed Jace’s, “Jace, you’re not giving me a chance to answer, let’s slow down just a little bit, alright?” Jace nodded his head. “Ravnica is the first place I really truly felt I belonged. That’s what it is to me.” He paused and Jace went to say something, but then Ral asked “You asked if I was born there? Right?” Jace nodded, “I was, actually, but not in the tenth, and certainly not in any position to join the Izzet.” Ral paused again, and then took Jace by the hand walking him into their bedroom and sitting down on Jace’s bed all the while still holding his hand. “The first world I planeswalked to was a backwards plane, one where science was a heresy punishable by death, and it almost was. The people of that plane were so devoutly fanatic they punished independent thought… You can tell how well I fit in there…” 

Jace had started, stopped, and started crying again in the span of those short few sentences and attempted to hide it from Ral, but to no avail, he reached over to the nightstand and produced a tissue from the box, handing it to Jace and asking if he wanted to say anything or if he should continue. “Why did you stay?” Jace asked curtly. 

“Who says I stayed?” Ral teased, then sighed wistfully, “Why do brilliant men make any dumb choices?” Ral asked in return, “I was in love.” Jace perked up at the mention of Ral loving someone else, this is the first he had heard of it: before they got together all Jace knew Ral to love was science and discovery and discovering science, basically being an Izzet guildmage was all that Ral had ever really loved. “It was a boyish crush but at the time it felt like my heart had burst from my chest and declared to the heavens a unity that would last until time itself had died and Zenos, God of Stagnation had burnt himself to cinders and extinguished.” Ral paused again and handed Jace another tissue. “God of Stagnation, that’s what I called him, the locals called him Zenos, The Preserver.”

“Jace, compared to us gods are nothing. You know that?” Jace looked at Ral as if he were a stranger, he’d never seen this side to him. “Do you know how many worlds have entire pantheons of gods? Our student senator has personally killed a god before, a powerful one too, Jace, do you know how small that makes things? How quiet. How lonely?” Ral was crying now too and the two of them sat there, worthless for a while, and enjoyed each other’s company even though neither of them were saying a word. 

MEANWHILE AT DORM C-3!

“Gideon, why don’t you find someone who can really love you?” Chandra said, pulling the blankets over her body to cover herself. Gideon slid on a pair of basketball shorts and climbed back into their shared bed and inclined himself in such a manner to ask permission to hold her, she didn’t respond.

“Chandra Nalaar, what are tears made of?” he asked as he repositioned to give her space.

“That’s a stupid question, Gideon. I’m not in the mood.” She replied and felt bad the instant the words left her lips.

If Gideon felt attacked he showed no signs of it, “Humour me?” He asked her.

“It depends why you’re crying, emotional tears have more prolactin and leu-enkephalin than tears used for lubricant which...” She replied, sniffling all the way through.

“Wait, what?” Gideon asked, interrupting her. “The answer is water, you’re a pyromancer, you and water don’t mix.” He said, clearly still confused by the earlier outburst of science.

“Sorry…” She said, “I must be talking to Ral too much, he and Jace have become pretty close.” She observed more to herself than to Gideon. “Gideon, why haven’t I ever felt that way about anyone?” He sighed loudly but before he could answer she opened with another volley of questions, “Am I broken? Why am I such a slut? I can have sex just fine. It’s just an act, is love an act? I love you, and I love Jace, but it’s not…” she cut herself off, or more accurately she was cut off by a sudden throat-wrenching sob. 

“Not the right kind of love.” Gideon finished and Chandra nodded, her tears flowing freely now. Gideon didn’t have words for when this happened, he just had the offer of a firm shoulder to cry on when she needed it and to always be there if she asked. That was the kind of love they shared, the kind that went beyond flowers or happily ever after and extended onwards to forever and equally to right now. Their love would not grow or wane as the seasons pass, it was an immutable constant in their lives and it was just as if not more real than any romance the multiverse had ever known, even if Jace had become involved with Ral they still had each other. 

“Gideon, I’m robbing you of so much, you have passion, you have love, you’ve got a heart… You can find someone and love them in return… in the right way. Why let me steal even more time from you like this?” Chandra asked.

“Well, you buy the groceries and I don’t have to really do anything for you in return, and I think that’s a pretty sweet deal so I’m set for a while as long as the terms of our arrangement don’t change…” Gideon said coyly. Chandra nudged herself closer to Gideon and he embraced her tenderly and they sat in silencer.

MEANWHILE AT DORM D-1!

“How does your resume look, Elspeth?” Dack asked, barely looking up from his X-box game, “Hold on, I’m on a kill streak, only one enemy left and I have a care package coming in. Oh fuck yeah, watch this throwing knife kill from across the map, god in six years I’m going to look back and this will be so douchey. Okay, cool.” He said setting the controller down.

“What do you mean?” She asked humbly. “And shouldn’t you be studying?”

“I mean you’re the Nurse's’ aide, President of the Choir, dean’s list, provost’s office chair, you help maintain the chapel, you’re a student senator, resident advisor, hell add deicide to that list and you’re pretty much set for life, hun.” 

Elspeth sighed, “I told you not to call me ‘Hun’, hun.” Dack nodded and then prodded a bit more, “Alright, look, maybe I do do a lot of things, but what about you? You can learn things with the simplest touch but you’re still almost failing most of your classes.” She began to berate him.

“They’re all so boringly easy.” He offered as paltry defense.

She sighed, “If they were really so boring you’d be able to complete them properly with the same amount of effort, you’ve got the… Dack… stacked in your favor, but refuse to even deal the cards, I just don’t understand.” 

“Elspeth, let’s talk about you not wanting to face your own issues. You’re terrified of yourself so you join and do as much as you can and help as many people as possible and you just do literally anything but address your them. You think if you do enough good in the world that it’ll decide to do good for you, but that’s not how it works.”

Elspeth looked visibly wounded, as if the color had drained from her face, “How dare you?” she exclaimed as she slapped him and stormed out of the room. 

“How dare I indeed, sweet Miss Tirel…” Dack said to the empty room.

MUCH LATER IN ROOM C-4

Gideon sat on Jace’s couch with Smithers while Jace sat in the armchair. “I don’t know how to help her man, and I’m not blaming you, but your thing with Ral has really come between us in a weird way.”

Jace was confused, something that before this week didn’t happen much but since had happened numerous times. “What do you mean “my thing with Ral”? You mean my relationship?” Jace scoffed at the notion, “I am capable of having a relationship and friendships I’ll have you know.”

Gideon coughed, “Jace, you’re barely capable of buttoning your shirt in the morning and you’ve got all the social tact of phyrexian.” Gideon said it so matter of fact that Jace didn’t really have a chance to get offended and so just reasserted his point. “Jace, I’m not trying to fight you, I’m trying to help Chandra.”

Smithers took this opportunity to pause his show, Cutthroat Kitchen, using a series of arcane runes inscribed around the living room over the past few days since his being raised and chimed in, “Gideon. Are you familiar with the phrase hamartia? It’s the fatal flaw of the hero. Yours is selflessness.”

“That’s ridiculous, being selfless isn’t a flaw!” Gideon protested and Jace neither agreed nor disagreed with him.

“All virtues, when taken to their extreme present themselves as vices.” Smithers intoned in age old wisdom from his cereal box. “You’re not alone in this quality but you’ve got to ask yourself: Is it truly righteousness that drives you?”

Gideon looked unsure about the question, either in his response or in the line of reasoning behind it. “Hey, Smithers, I just thought of something: can you rot?” Jace interrupted, noticing Gideon’s change in demeanor.

Smithers shook with rage, as much as a necromantic cereal box could, “That is an incredibly rude question, I suppose I could rot in the same way you will, Beleren!” he shouted.

They all shared a laugh about it. “Gideon, I’m worried about her too, if that helps.” Jace said, “I know I’ve been spending a lot of time with Ral lately, it’s just that we’ve reached a new part of our relationship where… Well he’s finally opening up to me, about things in his past, you know?” He sighed again, this was not his week. He had been confused, crying, and sighing at at least 200% the normal rate. 

“Jace, are you over Lilliana?” Gideon asked seemingly out of nowhere and Smithers left his armchair and floated over to his cupboard stating something along the lines of “I’m leaving, Jace has all the social tact of a phyrexian, and Gideon you’re not much better,” to himself as he floated by, but neither of the men really focused on it, instead dead set on what was going on between them. 

“Yes.” Jace said simply.

“Good.”

“Yeah, good.”

“She’s going to be expelled.”

“Wait what?”

Gideon sighed once more, and Jace replied “Oh my Zenos, why does everyone keep sighing? Life isn’t that… ugh, why is she being expelled?”

Gideon made every effort not to sigh for Jace’s sake, “Alright look, I don’t know what Zenos is, but I’ll ignore your linguistic quirks for the sake of our friendship, I’ve overlooked much worse: She’s been causing a lot of trouble and Elspeth, the other senator of our block, you know her, the cute one with the cloak. I don’t know why the cloak, but hey, look she wants Lilly gone because...”

Jace interrupted him, “Don’t call her Lilly, please.”

Gideon nodded, “She wants Lilliana gone because she’s been causing harm to other students, apparently everyone isn’t as equipped to handle zombies as we are,” he said a scowl creasing his brow.

Jace burst into laughter, “Sorry for the mood whiplash,” he began, “But that’s common sense man.” Gideon turned a bright shade of red similar to Chandra’s hair and began a defense, “Gideon, one problem at a time man, tell Lilliana to talk to Tezzeret about her appeal, if anyone can swing it it’s them. But I don’t care about Lilliana, she did actually literally kill my best friend, if you recall.”

Gideon did.

“Anyway, the problem with Chandra is much more pressing. I understand the things she’s going through though. Speaking of dead best friend, I had a similar problem: when Lilliana and I were dating I neglected him, and now I wish I didn’t, you never know how much time you have with someone…” Jace looked around the room, desperate for something to focus his gaze on and instead found Gideon’s stern impenetrable face.

“Jace, real talk. Why do you bring Kallist up so often?” 

Jace was quiet for a long time. “This isn’t why, but there’s something Ral told me the other day that’s stuck with me. He said “Jace, compared to us Gods are nothing.” The plane you come from, there were gods, weren’t there?” 

Gideon replied quickly, “There still are, Jace.” As if attempting to correct a blasphemy, probably out of habit.

“Gideon, we have all of infinity at our fingertips, our heartbeats trace the constellations of a million billion worlds and they’re ours for the taking and our biggest problems are our own relationships, doesn’t that seem ridiculous to you?” Jace asked, “Kallist was one man on one world on one plane, he doesn’t mean anything. He could never have left Ravnica and we both knew it. He was just so… limited. What if that was me, Gideon? I wouldn’t be here, I wouldn’t have you, or Chandra, or Ral. I would be nothing again, just like I was on Vryn. I’d never…” he trailed off for a bit. “I wouldn’t have anywhere I belong,” he finished.

There was a long silence. Longer than any silence they’d ever shared, it was profound, but it wasn’t uncomfortable.

After a long while Jace broke the silence, “Did you know Elspeth killed a god on Theros?” 

Gideon’s throat became dry, “I did not,” he said, “Which?” Jace shook his head, “I’ll have to ask her about it, it sounds like an interesting story…”

**Author's Note:**

> Gender Identities, Sexual, and Romantic Orientations of characters:  
> Jace: Cisgender, Bisexual, Biromantic  
> Ral Zarek: Cisgender, Homosexual, Homoromantic  
> Chandra Nalaar: Cisgender, Pansexual, Aromantic  
> Gideon Jura: Cisgender, Questioning, Questioning  
> Tezzeret: Agender, Asexual, Aromantic  
> Elspeth: AMAB trans, Homosexual, Homoromantic  
> Nissa: Cis, Polysexual, Polyromantic  
> Sarkhan Vol: AFAB trans, Heterosexual, Heteroromantic
> 
>  
> 
> Pairings in Chapter 1:   
> Jace X Ral (If you didn't get this one, have you been paying attention? <3)  
> Gideon X Chandra in a purely sexual context.  
> Chandra X Gideon in a queerplatonic relationship including Jace but they're very understanding of his relationship.


End file.
